“That’s exactly right,” said Danny, taking the microphone from her and putting it into Mikey’s face.

“Mom, Dad,” said Mikey, “I almost caught a fish! I never knew camping could be so fun. Hurry and come.”

“Great,” said Danny. “They’re going to love hearing from you.”

“How will they hear it?” asked Callie. “Aren’t we too far away?”

“They’ll hear it,” said Danny. “We’re up high and the reception is better than at home. That’s a promise.” He switched off the microphone. “You guys like marshmallows?”

Turned out, they did.

“I’m going to show you how to make a fire that can’t be beat,” Danny said. He took some dry wood from the pile he had borrowed from his mother. He showed them how to stack the branches like a pyramid, how to get the fire really hot. They roasted a few marshmallows to perfection, toasty brown.

Danny got up and found three cups. “I’ve got a pot full of water here, and a couple packets of hot chocolate. Who wants some?”

They practically jumped over each other, wanting some.

While the water heated, he prepared the mixture.

“I want this side of the tent,” Mikey said to Callie, who looked nervous, watching the night creep along the landscape.

“You can’t see the lake anymore,” she said, her voice small. “Are the bears going to come out?”

“I’m going to lock every crumb into the truck,” Danny said. “They won’t be able to smell it.” That was a lie, but Danny had enough worries without adding on bears.

“I get this side!” Mikey put his sleeping bag in place to cement the deal.

The afternoon breeze had gone for the day. Watching the small fire flick in the wind, Danny waited for the darkness. When the water in the pot got hot enough, he poured the liquid into the prepared cups.

“I can’t drink this,” Callie pronounced, making a face. “It’s way too hot.”

Mikey gulped the chocolate. “How come things taste so good when you are outside!”

Danny blew over Callie’s cup. “I can make it right,” he said. “Cool it down just the way you like it.”

For the first time that day, the little girl looked happy. “Okay,” she said.

“We need a story, though,” she said when Danny tried to get them into their bags.

“Sure, I’ll tell you a story. You finished up all your hot chocolate? There was the time I was down in Antigua and went out ocean fishing. You can catch fish there that are so big they can pull you right out of the boat!” He had never been to the Caribbean, but he had talked to a guy who had. He talked on, embellishing what he’d heard, making himself the hero, fabricating a lot of lore about marlin fishing he didn’t really know. Actually, as a way of passing the time, storytelling was something he enjoyed.

Both children fell asleep. Danny piled wood on the fire, thinking about his little buddies. If only it were real and they were just on a camping trip. He didn’t want to hurt them. He’d played with them and had some fun with them and they’d never called him a loser. They weren’t like sneaky Nate with his weird talk.

He looked into the dark forest, wondering if he was being hunted. He would never go to jail. The kids could go out in a blaze of glory with him and never grow up, always be happy and fishing and roasting marshmallows.

“It’s dark,” Paul said. He took his pack off and sat down on a fallen log.

“Yes.” Nina joined him. They had crawled up and back on the jeep trail several times, foraying beyond wherever they thought a car might break through the trees and brush to a hiding place. They took water bottles out, and drank.

“Just remember, if a bear chases you and follows you up the tree to eat you, it’s a black bear. If it knocks the tree down and eats you, it’s a brown bear,” Paul said.

“There aren’t any grizzlies up here,” she said, “only black bears that like berries a lot. They’re big bluffers, and would much rather eat your garbage than you.”

“You know they can get to six hundred pounds?”

“Are you trying to scare me or comfort me? Anyway, until you mentioned them, I wasn’t worrying about bears.”

“I know.”

They wolfed protein bars. “The question is, should we head down to Spooner Lake, even though it’s dark?” Paul asked.

“I’ve been thinking. I just could swear I saw something in Connie’s eyes,” Nina said. “Just there at the end. Remember when she was talking about how Danny thought nobody cared if he lived or died and she said she did?”

“I remember.”

“She said, ‘Go ahead, track him down.’ I think she wants us to find him,” Nina said. “All that other information was to convince herself she wasn’t giving him away.” She got up, stiff-legged, and put her pack on her back. “I think she knows he’s here.”

“I think he couldn’t have brought these kids so far up,” Paul said. “We should try Spooner Lake.”

“No, Paul, he’s here!”

In the moonless night, she could just make out his shrug. “Up we go,” he said.

Danny closed the flaps down on the kids’ tent and tied it shut. Considering the number of pills he had ground up in their chocolate, they wouldn’t bother him until noon.

He felt like a ghost, cold, lifeless.

He went over to the pitiful fire and began tossing wood on it, all the rest of the wood he had taken from his mother, and made his own personal bonfire. After he got it burning big enough, and had drunk his fill of it with his eyes, he found the tape recorder. He pulled out a cell phone and dialed up Jolene and George.

George answered.

“I got someone here wants to talk to her grandma,” Danny said, enjoying the cry he heard on the other end. The phone clattered, and Jolene spoke next. “Danny? Where is she, Danny?”

He played the tape. Jolene started crying right after hearing the word grandma, so it didn’t matter that Callie didn’t talk much.

“Now put George back on the phone,” he said. Damn the woman. She couldn’t hear him through the wailing. He repeated himself, louder this time, and she let go of the phone.

“It’s me,” George said.

Danny put his face closer to the fire. “I got such a big fire going, George. Wish you could be here to experience it with me. But you don’t like hanging with losers, do you?”

“I’m sorry I said that, son. Now you-”

“Callie’s okay. She wants to go home, but that’s up to you.”

“Don’t hurt her,” George said. “We’ve talked. We’ll pay you the full amount. Twenty thousand. Just bring the kids back safe. Or leave them somewhere so we can come get them.”

“I’m going to need more money.”

Silence from George.

“I asked for the twenty. But you all thought, he set the fire, how’s he gonna collect? You forced me into all this mess.”

“It was just-you kept on setting fires-”

“So?”

“I-I won’t argue with you. I’m just waiting to hear how much.”

“An extra fifty grand.”

A pause, then George said, “Okay. On top of the twenty.”

“Get it,” Danny said. “Cash, unmarked, nothing over a fifty. I’ll call you in the morning about where all to leave the money and where to find the kids. This whole thing could be over by one o’clock tomorrow. It’s up to you.”

“Son, tell us where you are.”

“I’m not your son.” Danny punched End and looked around, paranoid again. The wind was rising, so the licks of fire flared out and blew sideways.

“It’s just possible,” Paul said, pushing a branch back for Nina, “that he’s dumb enough to build a fire.” They stumbled through brush that in the daytime would have been daunting, but at night was nearly impossible. Wind had blown in intermittent bursts for the past hour, so the pines shook and whipped above them, and dry leaves rained down. They reached the top of a rise, but had to march around for quite a while before they could see any distance through the thick black forest.